Table of Contents

Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives - King Henry VIII - commands her to marry him.

Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn's trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as Regent.

But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and the first woman to publish in English, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry's dangerous gaze turns on her.The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy - the punishment is death by fire and the king's name is on the warrant...

From an author who has described all of Henry's queens comes a deeply intimate portrayal of the last: a woman who longed for passion, power and education at the court of a medieval killer.

Philippa Gregory is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl, and is a recognized authority on women’s history. Many of her works have been adapted for the screen including The Other Boleyn Girl. Her most recent novel, The Last Tudor, is now in production for a television series. She graduated from the University of Sussex and received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, where she is a Regent. She holds honorary degrees from Teesside University and the University of Sussex. She is a fellow of the Universities of Sussex and Cardiff and was awarded the 2016 Harrogate Festival Award for Contribution to Historical Fiction. She is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of London. She founded Gardens for the Gambia, a charity to dig wells in poor rural schools in The Gambia, and has provided nearly 200 wells. She welcomes visitors to her website PhilippaGregory.com.

‘A master storyteller…Gregory captures the intrigue and suspense of life at the Tudor court in vivid detail. She skilfully combines painstaking historical research with a gripping fictional narrative and her characters are so lifelike and engaging that they practically leap from the page’

– Daily Express

‘A cleverly wrought political novel. In introducing Parr to a new audience, Gregory has done the first lady of English letters something of a favour’

– Sunday Telegraph

‘Gregory dramatises the story of a reluctant royal wife negotiating the anxious, dangerous years of her marriage… written with her usual authority and capacity for great drama’

‘Gregory creates a world in which all but the most determined women are tools in the hands of powerful men… past-paced, convincing, vivid and engrossing’

– Daily Express

‘Philippa Gregory has another hit on her hands with this gripping page-turner. Her novel simplifies and humanises the complex politics of the period’

– Sunday Times

‘Lady Margaret Beaufort – cold, clever, calculating – will stop at nothing to put her son Henry Tudor on the throne. Gregory is very good at describing the bitchiness of the women in this tale of dynastic rivalry’

– Daily Telegraph

‘Rollicking, page-turning stuff’

– Metro

‘Popular history at its best’

– Daily Mail

‘Meticulously researched…for each novel she immerses herself in dozens of primary and secondary sources, before transforming them into vivid fiction’

The Taming of the Queen

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